Checkpoint's Mobile Access Blade: VPN For iPad And iPhone

Check Point Software Technologies is entering the device access control market with their Mobile Access Software Blade. The new blade provides secure SSL VPN connectivity and certificate-based two-factor authentication to a mobile device-specific portal to email and other business applications -- CRM, Share Point, inventory tracking, purchasing systems, corporate intranet, etc. Mobile Access Software initially supports Apple's iPhone and iPad, and other device support is forth coming.

With the rise of IT consumerization, users are increasingly using personal devices, primarily smart phones and tablets (particularly the iPad), to access corporate resources. Security, network and mobile device management vendors are moving in to give enterprises the ability to allow access through personal devices while exercising some control.

"We're seeing the mess of many, a lot of devices coming onto our networks and not necessarily ones that IT owns," said Andrew Jaquith, senior analyst for Forrester Research. "They still need to assert some control over it, and attempt to impose some order on what now looks a lot like chaos."

The announcement puts Check Point in the mobile device access control market against network vendors Cisco Systems, which recently announced major upgrades to its AnyConnect VPN http://www.networkcomputing.com/data-protection/ciscos-high-performance-asa-appliance-new-version-of-anyconnect.php , and Juniper Networks' Pulse http://www.networkcomputing.com/security/juniper-releases-ssl-vpn-client-for-mobile-devices.php . While it might make sense with homogeneous shops to go with a particular vendor, Jaquith said that most enterprises have mixed IT environments and have several options from which to choose.

Check Point's software blade platform connects to their line of gateway appliances, ranging from branch office to enterprise/data center-caliber devices. The blades include a wide range of security (firewall, VPN, IPS, application control, DLP, Web security, URL filtering, AV, email security, advanced networking, acceleration and clustering and VoIP) and security management modules.The Mobile Access Blade provides central management and user provisioning, administration, policy configuration and reporting. Users are sent an activation key to set up the Mobile Access Software client. Check Point provides certificate-based authentication in addition to username/password, as well as device pairing to ensure that only the authorized person is using the device to access the corporate network.

Once they are set up, users are presented with a personalized menu that gives them access to only those apps for which they are authorized. Email is the primary driver for smart phones said Jaquith, but tablets are drawing broader interest.

"When you start looking at tablets - and by that I mean the iPad—the driver is much more about applications," he said. "That's really what's pulling the iPad train through the station now; enterprises want to do custom applications on them."

The Check Point mobile application is free for download at the Apple App Store. A PC client will be available later this quarter, followed by Android and Symbian in Q1 2011. Pricing for the Mobile Access Software Blade starts at $1,500 for 200 concurrent users.